64 Percent Of Montco's Coronavirus Deaths Are In Nursing Homes

NORRISTOWN, PA — Montgomery County is working to improve conditions in local nursing homes, which have seen a bulk of the area's coronavirus fatalities.

As of Wednesday, there were 289 cases among staff and 447 cases among residents at long term care facilities in Montgomery County, for a total of 736. That's an increase of 149 Wednesday, up from 587 overall on Tuesday.

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Of the county's 120 deaths, 77 resided in one of the county's nursing homes, comprising about 64 percent of all deaths from the virus in the county.

In municipalities that have suffered the heaviest losses — Springfield has 26 deaths and Upper Gwynedd has 17 deaths — almost all of the fatalities are in long term care facilities.

The county has 79 long term care facilities which have been infected with the virus, with six new homes reporting cases Wednesday. Many only have a small handful of confirmed cases, while others have seen dozens. One facility has between 60 and 65 cases, officials said Wednesday, while five others have more than 30.

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While the county does not oversee the more than 600 facilities in the county, which include small group homes and larger long term care facilities, they are still working on ways they can assist. They're calling every facility on a daily basis to check in, to review CDC guidelines, and to fulfill requests for personal protective equipment when possible.

The county is also exploring making in-person visits to offer hands-on guidance. But it's a two-way street.

"I want to be clear, we have to be invited in," Montgomery County Commissioner Val Arkoosh said. "They could say no thank you, and there is nothing we can do. They are not under our authority. We want to be as helpful as we can possibly be."

Numbers for specific facilities are not being made publicly available due to privacy concerns, but those numbers are being tracked.

Nursing homes are particularly susceptible for a number of reasons: the number of staff coming in and out every day, the close, confined, sometimes crowded quarters, and, of course, the vulnerability of the older population to the virus.

The county has also partnered with Real Time Medical Systems, which is providing free use of its services to track coronavirus symptoms in nursing homes in the county in real time. Officials are hopeful that the live look at collective symptoms, as they are being reported, will help them to immediately identify potential clusters of cases, and respond with appropriate isolation measures.

All told, Montgomery County has seen 120 deaths and 2,199 cases of coronavirus as of Wednesday afternoon.

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